A Ballerina

This doll was born through a pattern-making stage for a fully poseable ballerina that I have in mind. It's long and lanky, and dressed in modern ballerina clothing. I'm planning to make these stuffies with wired arms and legs so that they can be formed into dainty ballerina poses. I know I said I was done with dolls..but I guess I lied.

I wanted to quickly finish the doll so that I can move on to the next poseable one, and am a bit disappointed in the face...yet I still find her really adorable. I'm gonna toss her into my Etsy shop, as my wee one can. only. have. SO. MANY. dolls. :)

She stands 30 inches tall, and her face measures 6 inches wide. She has button eyes and is therefore not appropriate for a really oral child, yet - she is intended to be more of an "art doll" who doesn't get a whole bunch of active play.

Here she is lounging after a serious dancing session:


The piggie-tails seem to becoming my trademark. Here she is from the back:


***this gal's been sold over at Etsy. Yeah!

Re-constructed Clothing

Did I need to? Nope. Did I do it anyway? Duh.

I was sorting through some clothes of mine. Ahem, they were the wrong size, but good fabrics. Had all kinds of crazy visions for what I can do with the fabric, and somehow went into a manic sewing frenzy over the past two nap-times. Now, the gal has two new skirts.

One, is a skirt bottom of mine, that I liked - except for the way that it's been too snug on my hips since the baby making days. I cut the bottom off a skirt, sewed in a new elastic band. And four minutes later - poof! A new skirt for the toddler girl. It's not my favorite of the two new ones though, and it's actually in the gal's closet - who is napping now. So, no pics available. It could have been much cuter, had I given it a bit more than four minutes of time. But such an instant gratification project.

But, this one is really cute! I used Lyn, of Mollychicken's idea for using up leftover bits of material, and I made a piecy front to it. Then, I dismantled another of MY skirts (that I had actually constructed from a too tight pair of jeans a few years ago right after Kenzie was born!) and cut away bits of the jean material to form the skirt. I made this:

The front:


Lots of raw edges here, so I tossed it in the dryer to encourage the fraying and Voila!!! It's a frayed mess and I love it.

The back:


Close-up of the pieced bits of scrap materials, which I mindlessly sewed into place:


Can't wait to toss it on the toddler and strut her about. Excuse the photos. It's a lousy overcast day, and as aforementioned, no live models were awake!

Go Aways

...kid tested, mother approved...



As result of the Go Away sign I made for my front door, a few mom's suggested I make one for them. Although not as sophisticated as my own - here are the resulting "go away" messages. These should just be hung on the door when the kid can't play. Mine requires it be flipped when she can ...and cannot ...play. It gets a bit old to have the kids reminding me that clearly it needs to be flipped (from the "cannot play" side) because Kenzie is outside playing. right. now. So the sign is WRONG. And they'll keep chatting me up about it - until I fix the sign, for crap's sakes. That would be the only failure with my original idea...

One family has two kids with longer names, so I settled on "we" instead of personalizing with the names. Yep, Lazy.



The other, has the name included.

Cute, No???

SALE

***thanks for all your comments gals.

I've finally resolved the glitch with my first sale and the money has been transferred. Apparently, the Etsy transaction notice has a link to be followed, which is easily overlooked by the buyer. With a little research and prompting, my really sweet first buyer completed the process and one of my handmade tutus will be gifted to her family member. I agree with her and think a tutu is a perfect gift for a two year old birthday girl!

Again, thanks for the answers to my plea for help. I appreciate those of you who took the time to help out. And, by golly - thanks for all the congratulations too!! What great cheerleaders you are!!!

WIP

I started this painting well over a month ago. I have been playing around with it the past couple of days, and hope to finish it soon.

The original idea was for Kenzie's bathroom, which still needs to be painted as well. Kenzie loves to swing, and this is a little version of her swinging from a tree. Where the tree comes in, is unclear .. as we don't have a tree swing. :) Artist's interpretation I guess.

I'm hoping that by sharing it here, I'll be accountable to finish the thing. So far - it's an oil painting, with collage pieces (the grass is paper strips glued on in individual itsy bitsy pieces. The tree is collaged bits of bark from our River Birch trees in the backyard. I love the peeling bark that has so many different shades and textures.) Kenzie's dress is a bit of fabric. And, there's still a whole lot to be done to it. There will be flowers along the grass line, maybe a mushroom or two, and I think I'll change the little birdie into an owl. Who knows?

It'll be fun to see how it evolves into a finished piece.

I've always loved painting, ever since college - where I got a Bachelor's in Fine Arts (BFA), which was result of pursuing Art Therapy as my major - forcibly requiring me to take (at least one) class in just about every art medium there is. I don't think I've painted any actual paintings since school, where I lost the passion for it after all the anxiety-ridden critiques and feeling like I was pulling a painting theme completely out of my arse just to meet a deadline (at the last minute). I had to do a Exhibit show to graduate, and I had done a series of 7 paintings that were included. They were my favorite of all time, and they all got stolen out of the Exhibit room, which was left unlocked for people to pass through freely during the entire week that Exhibits were in place. I ended up with one painting left after the thief made off with my best work. I think that killed a bit of the passion too.....

Let's see if I can find it again. :)

The LAST of the rag dolls

I've finished the last two dolls, which will be given to my niece's tomorrow afternoon. Since their family is in a car well into the evening tonight and their Mama won't be thinking of the computer tomorrow - I think they're safe to post now.

I really like these last two...although I must say .again. I lost my passion for making them after the first. My doll-making career is over. Phew. I did reassemble my Kenzalina doll after she was mauled by my in-laws dog. She got a pretty good shredding but was salvagable. She looks pretty much the same as she did originally.

These two were also *inspired* by Joybucket's dolls.




And for now..I won't be terribly crafty for awhile. I've been re-employed by my old agency to write clinical reports for the social workers whom I left with humongous case loads. I am also repainting our deck...and I need to complete a painting for Kenzie's room which I started eons ago. I don't have any craft projects on the horizon - but, that's usually when I suddenly get hit with a huge desire to make something. We shall see what's up next!!

Happy crafting Ladies! :)

Wrist Cuffs & Studio

I got carried away in my "Creation Station" today. I started by cleaning up bits of thread laying on the floor - which was nearly a shag carpet in itself...and then it turned into a full on organizational feat. The room has been organized within an inch of it's life. Now it needs to be painted. Desperately.

I completed some wrist cuffs for my Etsy shop last night. I'll be uploading those whenever the kidlet gives me the permission and time. I'll be listing them at $20 each and that will include shipping. I made five, summarized in the picture below:



***They were uploaded to Etsy at 9:00 tonight. To go shopping -- click on "Shop Mama's Doodles" over there on your right hand side....

A Meme and craft(s)

Jo has tagged me to list 5 weird things about me (or my pets), and tag five others. So weird thing is, I have a really hard time thinking of things that qualify me as weird. I hope that's a good thing....

1. I haven't eaten red meat or pork for years. My dad is a hunter, and I have eaten some weird stuff he caught: turtle, rabbit, deer, strange fish & crustaceans from ponds, etc. I'm thinking he might have even fed me squirrel too, but I'll have to ask, as that might be a lie. I cut a lot of meat out of my diet after moving away from home. But every time I see a sausage McMuffin commercial on TV, I think heavily about reacquainting myself with more meat! Greasy. sausage. just. looks. so. yummy.

2. I don't like messes or chaos. Every object in my house has it's own "home," and then I often get so "organized" that I forget where something is stored. Having a Master's in Counseling, I know this verges on OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). I like to think I use OCD to my advantage (except for when I lose things). I like tidiness A LOT. It's hard for me to leave Kenzie's toys alone as they scatter themselves about the floor. My home is perpetually tidy. This does not mean it's clean. Just tidy. And, thankfully, I don't have other OCD symptoms. I'm perfectly happy leaving doors unlocked, and germs on my hands. But, if something is a millicentimeter from it's "home" in my house - I. will. move. it.

3.  I will often be outside when others are exclaiming that the bugs are just "eating them up." I never ever get bitten. I think I must be toxic.

4. I have a cat, Cesi, who has some hygiene issues resulting from being stuck in my friends car wheel-well for 3 days before we adopted her. She was itsy-bitsy, and I surmise her mother never taught her to groom herself. Let's just say she drags her bum on the floor to remove the dingleberries - leaving skidmarks all over the place. She also gets matted fur on her back, because she never grooms herself. She's also mean. I guess the weird part is that we keep her!

5. Hmmn... I'm struggling here to come up with a fifth - and my other cat and dog are very normal. I almost told the whole internet that I only toot in my sleep, but I'll keep that to myself and my husband. Instead, I'll say that I like to blame my weight on all the gum I've swallowed in the past years (because I can't find anywhere else to dispose of it).

6. (an extra admission). I've been blogging for over a year and a half now, and I cannot ever. never. remember the language for writing in links within a post! I always have to consult my template, but am too lazy for that complication. Instead, I always end up saying the link is on the right hand side of my blog!! Jo, who tagged me, can be visited by clicking the link at the right side of my blog, folks! (see link: No matter where I go) :) She's a sweet gal who's given me some cheerleading and encouragement in my desire to sell my handmade goods. She does the most fabulous things with CQ (crazy quilt) pieces. And, to futher this admission --
I was going to tag five folks, however, the munchkin has awoken from her nap and I don't have time to look up the linking language to make note of them here. So, those five folks are spared. for now.

I do have some craft projects in the works, however my sis-in-law noticed my recent posts about the dolls I was making for her girls (she doesn't visit here often according to my stats, so I thought it was safe)...so I can't add any pictures of the finished dolls until they've been gifted. I've also got a few wrist cuffs mid-process, but I've been delayed by my need to obsessively re-do parts of them until they are perfect (yes, this would also apply to statement #2 above!!) -- and the fact that we are mid-way through redoing our two-level deck, which means I have to swap crafting for painting during the kiddo's hours asleep..... Sigh.

Completed projects coming soon!! Have a great week!